Monday, April 06, 2009

Something Unexpected

I am updating this blog.

No, it's true!

I've actually tried really hard the last couple of hours to get rid of the retina-scorching bright blue background, and have learned that it takes me longer than that to figure out how to change the crappy html I coded a few years ago in my (one) grand upgrade to this thing.

Anyway, let's start again (I'll fix the blue later). I'm Joe, and I like the Royals. That seems to be a much more popular sentiment than it was 5-6 years ago, when I started this blog. Royal fandom has taken me through a lot the last few years. Mostly, I've learned that there is a solid core of Royals fans that will always be there (as there is for any team). Some of them are very old school, and well versed on the basics. They like to stick to that. Some of them are completely new school, and very adamant about the newer metrics. They, also, like to stick to that. I am entirely in the middle, which is a position I, honestly, can't seem to find much of anywhere.

I was forefront in celebrating the new sabermetric way of thinking. I loved the idea that there would be more thought, more detailed thinking about what happens on a baseball field. It seemed to be a new, very much open-minded way of looking at the game. Supposedly. Of course, ideas like getting on base and slugging for a high percentage being good were pretty obvious to most intelligent baseball fans (and had been for quite some time). Still, the fact that those types of ideas seemed to be finally bubbling to the surface for most fans to grasp on to definitely felt like a step forward for baseball..

That was before everybody (and their grandma) became SABR experts, and started telling you how wrong you were about every pitcher that didn't strike out enough batters, or hitters that didn't have a high enough OBP. Since defensive metrics are pretty rough at this point, defense (amazingly!) takes a backseat in every armchair baseball expert's opinion. Strange how that works. It's amazingly hard for someone who knows all about the finer points of sabermetric analysis, yet still appreciates the science behind scouting, to find a place of agreement with anyone in cyberspace. The idea of being on the outside of conventional thinking is to, you know, not simply accept the conventional thinking of the day. I don't see that really happening on the current baseball message boards these days. You're either a SABR fiend, or a neanderthal..

Anyway, if I haven't alienated 2 of my remaining 3 readers already, here's a few things about the newly revived blog:

1) It will never be updated daily2) It will never reflect someone else's way of thinking.

How many message board posters can you think of that can even promise that?

That's all I can promise, anyway. Otherwise, it's basically my thoughts on the Royals. And baseball. And my other baseball team. And shit in general.

As far as the old posts: They'll stay. Embarassing as some of them may be.